“We got some good intel on that this afternoon, brother.” Jagger made a fist and bumped knuckles with Tank. “We all care about T-Rex and we’re gonna bring him back. But maybe I’ll save all that for my speech. I’m going to get an update from Shaggy, and then we’ll toast T-Rex.”
Sparky and Shooter waved them over to the makeshift bar after Jagger left, and soon had Evie laughing about how the club picked biker road names from events that happened when each biker was a prospect. Road Kill, Rubber, Sweet Cheeks, and Hard On had suffered the most from the Sinners’ collective sense of humor. Executive board members were allowed to use first names when they were elected and Jagger, Zane, Dax, and Cade had taken that option.
“What’s Zane’s road name?” She hadn’t even thought to ask, just as she hadn’t thought to ask Viper’s real name. Evie made a mental note to ask Arianne, not that she planned to see Viper again, but she still couldn’t understand why she had seen a different side of the man, one that no one else had seen, and why that man had disappeared the night she met him at Riverside Bar.
“Tracker. ’Cause he can hunt down anything or anyone that’s gone missing.” Gunner, a giant of a man and well-suited to his role as club enforcer, shoved four Tequila Slammers across the bar, and Evie grimaced. Nothing went to her head faster than the fizzy combination of tequila and soda. Exactly what she needed tonight.
They did two slammers each and then Tank raised his third glass.
“Here’s to T-Rex.” Tank covered the drink with his hand, slammed it on the counter, then shot it back with one gulp. Beside him, Sparky did the same, and then Shooter followed suit.
Evie covered her glass, but before she could slam the drink on the counter, a warm, broad hand covered hers, and Zane came up behind her. “I think you’ve had enough.”
Oh did he now? Evie pressed her lips together and glanced over at Tank with his wide eyes and vigorously shaking head. How utterly humiliating. As if she didn’t know how much she could drink.
“Okay.” She looked back over her shoulder and forced a smile for the dark, glowering man behind her, arm tensed for the moment he removed his hand.
Zane grunted his approval and slid his hand up her arm to her shoulder, his touch sending a sensual prickle over her skin. “Maybe we should—”
Slam. She banged the glass on the counter, waited two seconds until it fizzed, and then shot it back. If she’d learned anything during her marriage to Mark, it was how to set boundaries. Although Mark was controlling, he was at heart an insecure man. Zane, on the other hand, was utterly dominant and if she didn’t draw her line in the sand now, he would walk all over her when it came to decisions about Ty. “Thanks, Gunner. I’ll have another.”
She turned and met Zane’s gaze, lifting her chin the tiniest bit just to let him know his dark scowl didn’t affect her, but deep inside, fear curled in her belly. Not because she was afraid of him—for all the darkness in him, and the fear and respect he engendered in his brothers, he was still her Zane—but because she didn’t know if she’d pushed him too far. Was this the moment he would walk away?
Silence. No one moved. No one spoke. Clearly she had crossed some hidden line.
Braced for his reaction, Evie expected a growl or even a shout, perhaps even the sight of his back as he walked away. So when he grabbed her hair, yanked her head back, and sealed his lips over hers in a fierce, possessive kiss, she gave in without a fight, her arms twining around his neck as he ravaged her mouth.
“Well … that was … unexpected,” she said when he gave her a moment to catch her breath. “Maybe I should have another drink.”
He drew her to the side of the bar, away from the curious stares of his brothers. His hands slid over her bare skin, exposed by the cutouts in the dress, and then he yanked her against him and pressed his lips to her ear. “Don’t push me, sweetheart.”
“I already pushed you.”
“And I’m still here,” he said quietly, giving her the reassurance she needed, although she had no idea how he understood her so well.
“Maybe we can be friends again.” She pressed herself against him, breathing in his scent of leather and liquor, and the faintest hint of smoke. He snorted a laugh. “Friends don’t fuck like we did last night.”
Crude. But true. In fact, she’d never had a boyfriend who’d made her come the way Zane had last night. And he was right; it wasn’t just sex. They had a connection. Whether it was from their shared past, their child, or something deeper, she didn’t know.
He kissed the rise of her breasts above the thin strip of fabric, his hands encircling her waist, fingers trailing up and down the small of her back. “And they don’t fuck the way I’m gonna fuck you now.”
“Maybe I don’t want to fuck in the middle of Sparky’s garage while the Sinners party around us.”